Startups powered by Bitcoin and Blockchain technology raised $290 million during the first six months of this year, resembling the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. According to a report by Juniper Research, venture capital investment raised by companies employing either Blockchain technology, or Bitcoin directly, amounted to more than a quarter of a billion dollars. About a third of this was raised by three companies: Circle, a social payment provider, which raised $60 million; Distributed Asset Holdings, a distributed ledger solutions provider, which raised $50 million; and, of course, Blockstream, the sidechain developer, which raised $55 million. Lee Gibson Grant of the Drachmae Travel Club sees investments flowing into Blockchain startups as more and more people become aware of the technology’s capabilities. He says to CoinTelegraph: “The Blockchain space is typical of new technology coming onto the market. This early stage sees many startups and experiments, which will provide proof that the technology is applicable in specific, practical use cases. Once identified, there will be consolidation into leaders within those areas at first, and progressively more capital will flow into those entities. Over time the investments will be billions of dollars, and will create new businesses and many new employment …